Hello peeps! These are my first words (here) of 2013, so let me start off by saying Happy February to you all! (I mean, it's WAY too late get away with New Year's greetings by now...)

For those who have been waiting with bated breath for the next exciting installment of ME, I'd like to congratulate you on not having keeled over dead of asphyxia a long time since. But your superhuman wait will, I hope, have been worth it as I now finish off the goings-on of last year in a little postette on the theme of December 2012.

Now, if you remember, my last blog entry left you with the cliffhanger of me boarding a flight to Cologne. Strictly speaking, it wasn't December yet - but it was a lovely place to break the story, don't you think? So, anyway, picture it: Thursday 29th November, a crisp late autumn day. I head to the airport and, with plenty of time to spare, having checked in online and decided to travel with hand luggage only (as is now my wont, given my luck in recent years with luggage going astray), I caught up with Felix for a coffee; he was able to slip away from his work for Lufthansa to sit with me awhile sipping coffee in one of the cute little bars on the mezzanine floor that floats in the upper reaches of Munich's Terminal 2.

Then I flew to Cologne Bonn airport, whence a local train whisked me to Cologne and an undergroundy tram thing took me south towards Sülz, where I caught up with my mate Olli. I dumped my bags at his and we headed straight out for a few Kölsch beers and a slap-up dinner of roast goose with red cabbage. Mmm! A bottle of red wine later, we headed back to Olli's for, ahem, a bottle of red wine!

The next day was something of an IT adventure for me: I was working "from home" for the first time with full access to my office PC via the interwebs. And it all worked! A fabulous dry run for my slightly longer-distance escapades later in the month - but of that, more anon. So Olli kindly gave me use of his place as an office while he was at work. And so, with a brief pause for a trip into town for lunch and a wander, I spent the day working, with the slightly bizarre feeling of lounging about at home - even though it wasn't MY home!

When he got back that evening we headed out for a meal at Va Piano (yes, they're in Cologne too) before heading to a few Christmas markets to sample the local Glühwein. One was, to be brutally frank, shite. The other, at a more traditional market, was much tastier. So we stayed there, having got into conversation with a couple of lads there. Who we ended up going for more drinks with. They were a sociable pair - as were we.

I headed back to Munich earlyish on Saturday, so that I could spend plenty of time with Chris, Kate & the girls, who had flown in the night before. Hooray!!! It was a bit of a pre-Christmas family treat, what with the shenanigans I had lined up for later in the month precluding my participation in any festivities nearer the date - but of that, more anon. I headed to PEP to meet them all (the Peterses from Guildford and the Adamses from Munich) in mid-shop, before walking home with Charlie and then heading out with everyone to the delicious Perlacher Hof Austrian restaurant round the corner. Blimey what a fantastic meal - and selection of schnapses!

On Sunday I headed back to Michaela's for coffee, then we all headed to GOP Variété for lunch and a variety show of astonishing acrobats blended with lame humour. After that it was time to hit some more Christmas markets: first the Mediaeval one, then the one in the Residenz. And then - boohoo! - it was time for Chris, Kate & the girls to head back to the airport. I headed home with a heavy heart, knowing that I wouldn't see them again this year. (By which I mean last year, not this year, which was next year).

The next week was full of lunches and dinners, with Bernd, with Bénédicte, with the Stammtisch, with the choir, with my colleagues, and most memorably with everyone from work for our Xmas do in Kreuzberger - where the chef really pulled out all the stops and served us up a gourmet meal the likes of which I was never expecting to find in what is essentially a spit-and-sawdust Bavarian eatery.

At the weekend we had our first choir concert with our new conductor, Michael. It went pretty well! And the mood at the post-concert dinner at YumYum was good. But I was a bit anxious, because I hadn't actually done ANYTHING in the way of preparing for my next adventure, which was about to begin the following day...